By Tyler McKenzie
Ten-years ago, on September 3rd, 2015, Rowan County Clerk, Kim Davis, denied marriage licenses to two gay couples in Kentucky. She cited her Christian beliefs, claiming she could not be forced to violate her faith. She was briefly jailed for contempt of court. It made national news because earlier that summer, in a 5-4 vote on June 26th, the landmark Supreme Court case Obergefell v. Hodges ruled that states had to recognize same-sex marriages. That evening, President Obama lit up the White House in rainbow colors to celebrate.
All of this escalated the already brutal culture wars between the Religious Right and Progressive Left. On one side, Christians argued that the further breakdown of the traditional family would be ruinous for our nation. The Bible states a life-long covenant between a man and woman is the only God-ordained context for sex. There has been profound consensus on this across global and multi-denominational Christianity for all of its existence. Christians on the right warned, โDestabilizing marriage is a slippery slope that will lead to worse forms of sexual license and gender confusion. And it could unleash targeted persecution against those who maintain the historic biblical sex ethic.โ
On the other side, Christians argued that America is a pluralistic society. People should have religious freedom. Forcefully legislating Christian beliefs on our neighbors is not a precedent Christians should set. We should seek to persuade people of our convictions through public witness, compassion, and evangelism. Christians on the left warned, โThis is destroying our image. If we do not loosen our legislative (and perhaps theological) convictions on marriage, we will lose an entire generation of youth who are affirming. We donโt want to be on the wrong side of history.โ
Itโs been ten years since the summer of 2015. Where are we now? I have three observations.
#1 โ Cultural Acceptance Continued to Shift Quickly.
One of the reasons Christians resisted Obergefell v. Hodges is because of how quickly cultural norms around sexual activity had changed the previous 50 years. Boomers have seen a lot. First, sex without the responsibility of children was normalized.
- 1960 โ FDA approved the birth control pill.
- 1965 โ Griswald v. Connecticut established the freedom of married couples to use contraceptives.
- 1972 โ Eisenstadt v. Baird legalized birth control for unmarried people.
- 1973 โ Roe v. Wade (recently overturned) established a womanโs right to abortion.
- 1977 โ Carey v. Population Services International affirmed the right to privacy for minors who want to obtain contraceptives.
Do you think the invention and rapid legalization of birth control would change how people see sex? Of course. Therefore, second, sex apart from a lifelong marital commitment was normalized. Without the high risk of children, unmarried sex increased, and divorce laws were weakened. Before the sexual revolution, it was harder to get a legal divorce. The mindset was, โItโs good for the future of our kids (and thus our nation) to keep parents together.โ Over time these laws came to be seen as oppressive. โNo Fault Divorceโ was first legalized in 1969 by California Governor Ronald Reagan. This allowed couples to get divorced without proving their spouse did anything wrong. By 2010, every state had NFD.
Finally, sex and marriage between same-gender people were normalized. The rate of change here was astonishing. In 1996, the House of Representatives passed the Defense of Marriage Act. It defined marriage as โa legal union between one man and one woman as husband and wifeโ and declared the word โspouseโ refers โonly to a person of the opposite sex who is a husband or a wife.โ DOMA gave states the power to deny marriage to same-sex couples. It was fast-tracked for approval (342 yes votes v 65 no votes). Bill Clinton signed it.
In August 2008, presidential candidate Barack Obama did an open forum with candidate John McCain at Saddleback Church moderated by Rick Warren. At that forum, Obama stated, “I believe that marriage is the union between a man and a woman. Now, for me as a Christian, it is also a sacred union. God’s in the mix โฆ I am not somebody who promotes same-sex marriage, but I do believe in civil unions.” During Obamaโs first two years in office, he supported DOMA.
Then things began to change. In 2011, he instructed the Attorney General to stop defending it. Then in a 2012 interview on ABC, Obama announced he had gone through an โevolutionโ on the issue and was ready to affirm โsame-sex couples should be able to get married.โ In 2013, in United States v. Windsor, SCOTUS declared DOMA unconstitutional. Then in 2015, the court ruled 5 to 4 in Obergefell v. Hodges.
Consider how fast all this happened. In 1996, there was bipartisan agreement on the definition of marriage. In 2010, President Obama was defending DOMA. Within four years, the legal system had shifted entirely. It is shocking to think that Donald Trump was the first incoming president to openly support same-sex marriages.
#2 โ The Cultural Momentum for Same-Sex Marriage has Halted.
Statistician Ryan Burge shows that while support for gay marriage among the American populace skyrocketed from 31% in 2004 to 68% in 2018, it has hit a brick wall. It leveled at 67% in 2022. He goes on to break this down based on religious groups (2018 โ 2021 โ 2022).
- Evangelicals: 45% โ 35% โ 36%
- Mainline: 75% โ 68% โ 67%
- Black Prot: 54% โ 56% โ 55%
- Catholic: 73% โ 66% โ 68%
- Other Faith: 70% โ 65% โ 75%
Itโs worth noting that, ten years later, Kim Davis is petitioning SCOTUS to reconsider Obergefell v. Hodges. They will decide whether to hear her case this fall. Her chances are considered low.
#3 โ Religious Liberty for Christians Supporting the Historical Biblical View is not Under Threat
There is no denying that there are some who take aim at Christian beliefs and institutions. However, SCOTUS currently sits at a 6 to 3 conservative majority. I have listed below four noteworthy rulings since Obergefell v. Hodges that help take the temperature of the court.
- Masterpiece Cakeshop, Ltd. v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission (2018) โ In a 7-2 decision, the court determined that a baker was not required to make wedding cakes for same-sex marriages.
- Bostock v. Clayton County (2020) โ In a 6-3 decision, the court ruled that Title VII of the Civil Rights Acts protects employees from discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity.
- 303 Creative LLC v. Elenis (2023) โ In a 6-3 decision, the court held that a web designer could not be compelled to create websites for same-sex weddings.
- United States v. Skrmetti (2025) โ In a 6-3 decision, the court upheld Tennessee’s ban on gender-affirming medical care for transgender minors.
David French, a lawyer whose expertise is in religious liberty and constitutional law, recently wrote: โReligious liberty proponents havenโt lost a significant Supreme Court case in 14 years. During that time, the court has established (often through supermajorities that include justices from the left and the right) that people of faith enjoy equal access to school facilities, equal access to public funds (including tuition assistance to fund private religious education) and extraordinary independence from nondiscrimination laws that would otherwise interfere with the hiring and firing of ministerial employees.โ
Where will the Next Ten Years Take us?
Itโs hard to tell. The cultural pendulum swung quickly and with force. However, I am not sure if it will swing back. It seems, at least for now, it has frozen. American Christians may have to learn to live in an environment where their religious liberty is protected while their historic beliefs on sexuality and marriage are unpopular outside the church and even debated within segments of the church.
It is my opinion that we would do well to learn how to engage this issue (and others) in a framework of cultural persuasion rather than culture war. Itโs not enough for us to believe that Godโs Word has something to say about the issues of our time. We must also desire to model a better way of discussing them. Those choosing the warfare framework leave us with casualties and walking-wounded filled with shrapnel. Those choosing to ignore the issues altogether look out-of-touch. We have the Word of God! We have Jesus who is the way, the truth, and the life. We have a Holy Spirit who can produce fruit like love, kindness, peace, and self-control. So, we should be the first and the best at engaging this, but we should do it through cross-shaped means.
Tyler McKenzie serves as lead pastor at Northeast Christian Church in Louisville, Kentucky.
Author: Christian Standard
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Excellent recitation for where we have come. In a war when one side stops fighting, but the other doesnโt, the side that doesnโt fight loses every time; no exceptions. We have to have a war mentality but it has to be exactly focused on the right areas and done in exactly the right โChristianโ way. This requires great wisdom. 1. Take a firm but loving stand on what the Bible says. 2. Deal with the issue apologetically as we would deal with atheist or any philosophy that sets itself up against the knowledge of God. 3. Bath the whole matter in prayer. 4. Commit ourselves to training the next generation to be warriors after the same pattern. 5. Turn the tide politically. A huge center portion of the country are like sheep they follow whatever way the culture leans. So If we get back to 45 percent the numbers could flip very quickly. 6. Continue to work the problem from multiple fronts: culturally, politically, and spiritually. God used prophets, priests, and kings to direct the people back to him. Nothing with humanity is permanent but it is either reform or cultural suicideโthere is no third option where ignoring the problem goes well.
Tyler, I completely agree regarding how to approach this subject. The “cross-shaped” approach is the best way to engage this issue. 12 years ago after 43 years as a Pastor in Restoration Churches, I transitioned to Corporate Chaplaincy, birthed Today’s Chaplain in 2013 and am now the In-House/Resident Chaplain for Beaver Toyota and Beaver Mazda the largest Toyota/Mazda Dealerships in the Southeast (Greater Metro Atlanta). To date, by God’s grace and the cross-shaped approach, which cannot be rushed, 14 couples now refer to each not as partners but as husband and wife with more to come! TO GOD BE THE GLORY!
Thank you Tyler for this excellent analysis and your thoughtful and helpful suggestions. Please tell us how better to persuade vs. waging war!!
Thank you for a good perspective.
Full disclosure: I pastor a Christian Church that is affirming and inclusive of LGBTQ+ peoples, and I’m also a pastor who is deeply rooted in our tradition and who believes in the ideals of our movement. (The Stone-Campbell Conference is a favorite of mine!) So, I realize I come at this subject from a different perspective, and I recognize that our church is in the minority on this issue within our tradition, but I come at this subject with a lot of space and desire for understanding one another as we seek to find the right way(s) forward.
Many would say that one of the inflection points in our tradition was around the issue of the “open table”, and what such a ideal would have meant then and now. As for other issues often connected to social change, such as, slavery, women in leadership roles, divorce and remarriage, interracial marriage, and so on, we have not been 100% faithful to those texts and teachings from Scripture that many would say are “clear” on these matters. None of these Scriptures have changed, but the ways in which we have engaged them has changed over time.
Ours is a story of years of struggle with this particular issue, filled with so much reading and prayer and listening to scholars and all those things we tend do in such a theological bind. But the tipping point for us was from the exclusively exegetical approach (all the Hebrew and Greek and surrounding usages and ancient cultural practices and ethics codes, etc.) to also include the real stories behind this issue, the actual people who live as believers within the LGBTQ+ community. Listening to their stories, and hearing of their faith while living in such murky and often times unwelcoming spaces for most of their lives, is what changed our approach from the exegetical (only) to the hermeneutical as well, to answering the question: “Yes, the Bible says this thing in a certain place, but what does that mean now?”
Tyler, your essay is great. Your research was well done and that much is clear. (I also have a bias towards Northeast Christian Church – my wife grew up there, her grandparents helped start the church, and we were married in what I suppose is now the youth room way back in 1995!) So this comment is not directed at you in any negative way whatsoever, but has been written as an additional encouragement to all of us in our tradition to remember that behind the data are the stories of real people engaging with their faith while living with very real struggles.
I can’t imagine any more books for either side of this issue being written in the future – so many now exist! (I know there will be, but you get my point.) What’s left for us to do is to listen. Much of the statistical data around percentages of those who are straight versus otherwise are still quite unknown, as many have yet to feel safe to bring these personal matters up, especially within the church. But the numbers are much higher than I think we truly know. I would say almost every family has someone who falls somewhere on the spectrum, and there are certainly people in just about every church who also fall somewhere on the spectrum. This is not going away. What’s best for us at this time is to set up safe situations where we as pastors and leaders can listen and hear from the lives of these people, and to gain an understanding of their experience(s) and how their faith has been impacted.
We are still called to be clear, preaching the truth in love. The truth AND the way we present the truth are both critical. We are called to holiness and must make that same calling for others to understand the true and holy god. That always includes repentance, which is probably the most difficult part of converstion. Extend mercy based on the truth, being a people of conviction and love, such a difficult balancing act for the believer. God help us.
I love what Derek Sweatman said.
In the 1800s Christians didn’t think the “savages” in other lands needed Jesus.
The Women’s Liberation Movement in the 1960s – 1970s played a large part in attitude changes.
As did the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s.
Now science tells us there are many combinations of XY, and those combinations play their part in thought and action.
We’re all made in God’s image.
Sometimes I wonder if God isn’t testing us.
Will we love as God loves?
Will we want ALL to know Him?
No matter what.